A space time journey through the lens of a Daion Performer

by Simon Ridley

The Daion Performer. What a name for a guitar! It has none of the dizzying, space age American optimism of the “Fender Stratocaster”. The “Greco Spacey Sounds” model is a superior example of 70’s Japanese branding. And surely any product optimistically named “the Performer” immediately calls into question that particular product’s ability to perform.

Allow me to take you on a journey through time and space, touching on mid 90’s teen dreams of rock stardom, exploring Japanese distribution methods for commodities in the 1970’s and finally arriving in today’s contemporary music scene, all through the lens of this guitar … the Daion Performer.

Background

Firstly, the guitar brand is “Daion”. The model is “Performer”.

This is my cherry red, Daion Performer, probably built in either Japan or Korea in the early 1980’s.

This type of guitar is commonly referred to as a “strat copy”. For those unfamiliar with this term, one of the first mass produced electric guitars was the “Stratocaster” model made by the American instrument company, “Fender”, founded by Leo Fender. Commencing production in the 1950’s, the “strat” as it is widely known, has gone on to shape modern music as we know it while continuing to be used extensively today. So successful and influential is this instrument, it has been copied widely by literally hundreds of manufacturers up to this day. These imitations are commonly referred to as “strat copies”.

This is the first electric guitar I owned, purchased for $190 from Philtronics in Mount Gambier in 1995. For a teenage boy, during the zenith of popular music dominated by men wielding electric guitars, the excitement of obtaining such a mythical object was visceral.

After playing the guitar for several years and assuming that it was a cheap “strat copy”, I upgraded to other guitars and then largely forgot about it for a couple of decades. We will return to this story in due course.

Vintage Japanese Guitars

About ten years ago I learned of a strong allegiance many guitar players have to vintage Japanese guitars. Quality vintage guitars are prized for their tone and playability in a comparable fashion to violins.

By way of background, in the 1970’s, a couple of notable Japanese instrument companies started making high quality copies of highly sought after, albeit much more expensive American electric guitars.

The two most well-known electric guitar models are the already mentioned Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul. Unsurprisingly, these are the most commonly copied styles of electric guitar.

My interest piqued in Japanese vintage instruments, in 2011 I bought a 1978 Greco Les Paul from a Japanese seller on eBay which cost about $700, inclusive of international shipping. At fraction of the price of the genuine article, I was stunned by how well the guitar played, felt and sounded. Accordingly, I have used it at live gigs on a regular basis since purchase.

Rediscovering the Daion Performer

In 2019, I started playing in a surf band and found myself looking for a Stratocaster style guitar. While the Greco Les Paul is great for big, rich rock sounds, surf music requires more of a “twang”. Stratocasters are perfectly suited to this style of music, indeed, the father of surf guitar, Dick Dale, famously used a Fender Stratocaster.

After playing many genuine Fender Stratocasters and also “strat copies” I remembered the Daion Performer may fit the bill. My mind raced. Would it work? Was it just a cheap and nasty knock off of the genuine article or was it perhaps a forgotten gem? Could it be salvaged? Was it worth it? Was it perhaps … Japanese?

After rescuing it from the dust monster which had possessed it for so long, I embarked on some research, the fruits of which I have summarized below for your reading pleasure.

Japanese Factories and the Daion Commodity Distribution Corporation

It is helpful to know that most Japanese copy guitars that enthusiasts now pursue were made in the Fujigen Gaki factory. This factory was named after Japan’s famous Mount Fuji. “Gen” translates to “stringed instrument” and “gakki” means “instrument”.

My Greco Les Paul copy is a perfect example of the type of copy guitars that were made in this factory. Other notable Japanese brands which produced quality copies of American guitars are Fernandes, Tokai and Ibanez. These guitars are often referred to as “lawsuit guitars” which I won’t get into here but encourage you to research yourself as it is makes for fascinating reading.

The Daion Corporation started not as a maker of musical instruments but as a distribution company in the 1960’s for Yamaki brand acoustic guitars within Japan. These guitars were built in the Dyna Gakki factory, located in the Nagano area of Japan. Interestingly, this factory now builds original guitars for Fender after once being focused purely on copying Fender products.

In the 1960’s Daion started exporting Yamaki brand acoustic guitars to northern America and by the early 1980’s incorporated countries throughout America, Asia, Europe and Australia. At this time, Daion started producing its own electric guitars and branding them as Daion rather than Yamaki.

It is my understanding that production of Daion electric guitars was moved from Japan to Korea at some point in the 1980’s and that Daion brand guitars ceased production entirely during the second half of the 1980’s. As such, it is unclear whether my Daion Performer was built in Japan or Korea.

Issues with the Daion Performer

As a teenager I was never happy with the guitar. At this time however, my ignorance was almost entirely uncontaminated. These two things were not mutually exclusive.

I was always frustrated with the Performer’s high action, poor intonation, lack of brand name, dodgy electronics and the sonic palete. In my time away from the Daion Performer, I learned enough to address and better understand these issues.

Playability

The playability concerns, in retrospect, clearly arose from the fact that the guitar was never taken to a professional guitar technician for a “set up”. To clarify, a set-up is when a guitar technician services the guitar and makes adjustments so that it plays well and sounds good. Very few guitars are given set ups at the factory they are built in before they are shipped out to retailers. Stores generally don’t set up guitars before they are sold because this adds an expense to the retail price which might discourage a potential buyer. Accordingly, many guitars never get a proper set up. To be clear, a set up makes all the difference. A well set up cheap guitar will play better than an expensive guitar which has never been set up.

Brand name

Like any teenager, I was acutely aware of brand names. “Daion Performer” was not going to impress any of my mid 90’s contemporaries. Having it emblazoned across the headstock of the guitar only served to highlight that it was not, in fact, a proper Fender Stratocaster. This was a serious teen concern which like other teen concerns has thankfully faded over time.

Electronics

Simply put, the electronics were shot. The guitar must have spent the first part of its life in a state of neglect in Mount Gambier which can be very cold and moist indeed. Rusty electronics will cause problems with the sound and operation of the guitar. Also, it is literally an electric guitar. The electrical element is important.

Sonic Palette

In the 1990’s, big distorted, dirty guitar tones dominated popular music. No coincidence that was the sound I was looking for. Stratocaster style guitars are generally more suited to cleaner tones. I understood that my poorly executed Nirvana riffs didn’t sound quite right but I didn’t understand why. The guitar wasn’t well suited to my teenage musical intentions.

So last year, when I rediscovered and assessed the guitar, I was less ignorant than I was as a teenager, a relief in itself. I took the guitar to my local music shop, Fretco and asked if the dusty and battered guitar was salvageable. I was assured by the guitar technician that he could make the guitar playable for a fair price. He replaced missing frets and other components, installed new pickups and a pickguard, replaced the electronics, put on new strings, cleaned it and gave it what was probably the first set up of its life.

And it was great. Which was frankly a surprise. So what transformed the Daion Performer from a source of teenage frustration and shame into a proper player?

The Daion performer in action with Surf! Terror! Panic!

The Daion’s performance

Firstly, there is a lot that can be done to improve any guitar. New strings, pick-ups and a set up will make almost any guitar playable.

If however a guitar has been poorly built, it will simply never play or sound all that great. Low quality components and construction will result in a guitar that is clunky and uncomfortable to play, which in turn will result in greater difficulty playing, resulting in a worse sounding performance.

Similar to a violin, the wood, glue and other components of a guitar will dry, contract and change over time. This process is referred to as “settling”. A well-made instrument with good quality parts will feel and sound better over time. This is why quality vintage guitars are so highly prized and comparably, why there are famous violins used today which are literally hundreds of years old.

The Daion was well made, using good components. As a result, it now plays well and sounds crisp, clear and very much like a genuine Fender Stratocaster. This is greatly assisted by the new pick-ups which were installed.

This is not to say that it sounds or plays like a high end guitar. It is still a bit rough around the edges. The action is slightly uneven and the intonation is not perfect. The sound is not as smooth or polished as a premium instrument.

On the other hand, my experience with live gigs is that a guitar which is a bit rougher often suits the gig better. While my preference for a festival show on a big stage is a high end guitar, these types of gigs have the benefit of time to set up and test equipment, a professional sound person and a comprehensive sound check to ensure high quality sound on stage.

Most gigs I play are in pubs and small venues. I usually have a few minutes to get my amp on stage, plug in and play. A more raucous, less refined guitar with some character, like the Daion is my preference in these situations. The character of the guitar suits the character of the gig better. Also, it is more fun to play a pub gig with a guitar that isn’t worth so much money that I spend the whole night worrying about it.

Then there is the “feel” of an aged guitar. This is very much a matter of personal preference for individual guitar players and literally describes the way the guitar feels in your hands when you play it. My Daion Performer and Greco Les Paul feel smoother and slinkier to play than newer guitars which I attribute to them having had time to “settle”. They also have a richness of tone and sustain which is often lacking in newer guitars.

Finally is the character of the guitar which as accumulated over years of being played, sweated on, dropped, stained and loved. This is often referred to as “mojo”, that certain je ne sais quoi. The Daion’s mojo is great. More a psychological element than an empirical assessment, most guitarists will have certain instruments that they just enjoy playing more than others. This is certainly the realm of the Daion. It is the guitar which I learned to play while dreaming of one day playing in bands. Now I use it regularly to perform in bands with musicians which make the experience a joy. It isn’t the greatest guitar in the world but I often think of it being like the hamburger and beer that you enjoy at a pub just as much, if not more than a fine dining experience.

And finally

And so, here I am, literally a quarter of a century after finding the Daion, using it more than all of my other guitars. In fact, I will be using it to record albums in the near future for a unique surf band I am playing in, Surf! Terror! Panic! and even my longest running musical project, Satan’s Cheerleaders.

Follow Surf! Terror! Panic! and watch some exceptional footage here

You can hear Satan’s Cheerleaders via Spotify here, purchase their music here and follow them here

If you’re in Adelaide you can hear the Daion Performer live as Satan's Cheerleaders do their thing at the Gov on Sunday 27 September in support of George Glass' "Art Attack" event. Cheerleaders to play at 7.30